Jego – China Mobile’s answer to Skype

China Mobile is back with its free calling mobile app – Jego, which was launched as a Skype competitor earlier in June. But for some reasons, the mobile carrier company restricted account registrations for the service in the same month.

There were a lot of speculations surrounding the service’s shortcomings after it was launched, but China Mobile has relaunched its free calling mobile app after a five month long hiatus. When asked about the reasons for the drawback, John Jiang, the CTO of China Mobile International, told Reuters that Jego’s June release was a prototype and “demand had overwhelmed the network.”

Any person living outside China with an Android or iOS smartphone and a data connection can use the app to receive free incoming calls on a China Mobile number. The app also allows users to send text messages, share pictures and make cheap international voice and video calls other than standard free calls and text chats between Jego users.

With more than 700 million subscribers, China Mobile has grown into the world’s largest and most profitable mobile operator company. The Hong Kong based company has come up with Jego as an answer to the growing social messaging apps including Line, WeChat, Skype and Viber.

Users making HD video calls to any China-based number using Jego will be charged just $0.022 per minute, which is even less than Skype’s per minute charge of $0.026 in addition to a $0.049 connection fee. In order to use the app, the users just need to register their China Mobile number on Jego and then subscribe to the service on the Jego homepage.

CEO and chairman of Hong Kong-based China Mobile International, Tiger Lin, said in an interview that the company’s new service would not only target China’s domestic market but also non-Chinese markets through partnerships with other operators using its network.

“This service is really providing traditional services over a new technology,” Lin said.